SDI Convergence - Nederlandse Commissie voor Geodesie - KNAW

2.1.2 ICT standards web services
For geo web services ICT standards such as SOAP, are actually used more often than
OGC standards. The most popular type of web service is a Data Service (DS). The private
sector uses DSs because custom-made information is delivered to the client. Furthermore,
a DS can combine geo-information with data from other databases. Query
tools can then be used to perform analyses on the metadata. Licensed information can
be protected with firewalls, although the same firewalls can make it harder to set up
query tools. Apart from DSs, there are also Sensor Web Services and Simulation Models.
Sensor Web Service is a type of sensor network consisting of spatially distributed
sensor platforms that wirelessly communicate with each other. They are most often deployed
for environmental monitoring and control. For this research, all ICT standard
web services will be bundled into Data Services.
Although the technical specifications and standards used for the various types of web
services are different, the economic aspects of them are not so dissimilar. In this article,
no distinction will be made between the different types of web services when describing
the economic aspects.
2.2. Costs of web services
The costs of setting up and keeping a web service operational are high. To develop a
web service one has to invest in hardware, software, legal, technical, sociological and
economic expertise, building up know-how, market and target group research, implementation
costs, advertising and promotional costs, administrative and project management
costs. Then there are the operational expenses such as servers, broadband
capacity, licence fees for software and/or (geo) datasets, acquisition costs and personnel
costs. During the operational phase of a web service reservations have to be made
for future costs such as R&D, equipment depreciation and extra capacity.
The costs of an operational web service are very variable, depending on the type of
service. Stieglitz et al. (2008) made a financial analysis of a virtual community as part
of a case study. Virtual communities are a group of people sharing a common interest
by using internet applications. Web 2.0 platforms are technologies, which enable formation
of virtual communities. An increasing number of private sector organisations are
using virtual communities to bridge the gap between users and the organisation by including
users in the value chain. The financial analysis undertaken by Stieglitz et al.
(2008) was conducted for a virtual community of retail investors at the Berlin Stock
Market with memberships sold on a subscription base. Stieglitz et al. (2008) distinguish
four separate phases in the life of a web service:
(1) the development phase (analysis, design and implementation);
(2) the operational phase;
(3) the adaptation phase (evaluation and evolution), and
(4) the disintegration phase.
Even in the disintegration phase, the web service still incurs costs such as migration
costs to another platform, running contract costs and replacement of technology. Only
in the operational phase is revenue raised through savings, advertisements and memberships
/ subscriptions. In their analysis, Stieglitz et al. (2008) noted that the total
costs per month were relatively stable during the first year of the operational phase.
Only after a critical mass of users and contributions is reached, growth can accelerate.
Later in the operational phase, the costs will continue to increase but so will the reve-
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